Live coverage: Montana Election Day 2024

Absentee voter turnout reaches 83% in Montana

As of just after 5 p.m., nearly 83% of Montana’s 551,072 absentee voters had returned their ballots. In five counties, more than 90% of absentee voters had returned their ballots, according to data from the Secretary of State’s office.

The 455,893 absentee ballots cast so far marks about 57.2% of the 796,957 registered voters in Montana. The absentee ballots do not include ballots cast in person on Tuesday.

In 2020, turnout was 81.3% in. Montana – the highest turnout in at least 30 years, according to the Secretary of State.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke makes appearance in Kalispell

In Kalispell, voters in 27 precincts visited the Flathead County Fairgrounds to cast their ballots. Outside, supporters of U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke, who is running for re-election to represent Montana’s 1st Congressional District, waved signs, blasted music and stayed warm under heat lamps.

For a time, Zinke himself was out on the sidewalk shaking hands and waving at the cars lined up to enter the fairgrounds. Zinke will be spending election night in Whitefish.

Long wait for results in Gallatin County expected

In Yellowstone County, polling places were filled on Tuesday morning. Election officials there said they hadn’t seen such a turnout from voters since at least the 2008 election.

Cascade County officials had to open up extra room to house long lines of voters waiting to register, the Montana Free Press reported. Voters in Gallatin County stood in line through a morning dose of snow, social media posts show. Nora Shelly of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported that some of those voters in Gallatin County had been standing in line for four hours in the snow. Officials there said they don’t anticipate having the first results in until at least 11 p.m.

For more on polling places across Montana, click here.

Lowell Elementary, neighborhood polling place, draws voters on Election Day

Shelby Jessop walked down the sidewalk outside Lowell Elementary School in Missoula on Election Day in November 2024 sporting an “I Voted” sticker on her coat. Jessop, whose little girl followed, said abortion is a top issue for her, and she stands with Sheehy.

“I think that we should all be a part of what decisions are made in our country,” Jessop said. “I wish more people would vote, honestly.”

‘Busy as hell’ at elections office in Lewis and Clark County

In Lewis and Clark County, more than 100 people were in line to vote or update their registration around 11 a.m., while people simultaneously came in to drop their absentee ballots off.

A county election official told the Daily Montanan it had been “busy as hell” all morning and likely would be throughout the rest of the day.

Montana Secretary of State’s Office Elections Director Austin James was at the county elections office to check in and said things were similarly busy in many counties across Montana.

James said he’d gotten to work at 4 a.m. Tuesday and that a team was working at the office to ensure there were no cyberattacks or other malicious activity occurring within election offices, but he reported no issues so far. He said the office would not release a county’s results until everyone in line had voted to ensure none of their votes were influenced by early results.

Election workers at four polling sites the Daily Montanan visited around Helena in the late morning and early afternoon continued to see a steady stream of voters coming through. Several said they had lines to start the morning at 7 a.m., that the turnout was much higher than in the primary, and that they had been busy throughout the morning.

Long lines at polls in Missoula on Tuesday morning

In Missoula, Shelby Richards stood in line with pup Rose, a service animal in training to help with her severe post traumatic stress disorder.

Richards, who has a 6-year-old daughter, said she believes the economy has been in decline.

“It’s time for some things to change and make it livable for families,” Richards said.

She said she wants to see former President Donald Trump and fellow Republican Tim Sheehy, running to oust Democrat incumbent Jon Tester in the U.S. Senate, take office.

Outside the Elections Center in Missoula, Community Emergency Response Team workers directed voters driving through the parking lot.

CERT’s Dawn Couch said people had been kind and patient with each other, and a few were honking and yelling the names of their candidates.

She said the elections staff had been “amazing.”

“It’s been really, really well run,” Couch said.

In the parking lot, Logan Kostka looked for a pen to sign his name and turn in his ballot. Kostka said women’s reproductive rights were one factor in the 2024 election, but not the only one.

“As an LGBTQ+ member, a lot of the stuff coming from Project 2025 is literally against my belief system and my being as a human,” said Kostka, 20.

At least one neighborhood polling place at an elementary school in Missoula didn’t have lines out the door.

Shelby Jessop walked down the sidewalk sporting an “I Voted” sticker on her coat. Jessop, whose little girl followed, said abortion is a top issue for her, and she stands with Sheehy.

“I think that we should all be a part of what decisions are made in our country,” Jessop said. “I wish more people would vote, honestly.”

More than half of Montana voters cast ballots ahead of Election Day

To start the day in Montana, more than 54% of registered voters had already cast their ballot. Data from the Secretary of State’s Office showed 431,636 Montana voters had returned their absentee ballots out of 792,440 voters.

During the last presidential election in 2020, 612,075 Montana voters cast ballots, resulting in a turnout rate of 81.33%, the highest in Montana in at least 30 years, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Click here to read more.